Towne Acres Times
PTA Newsletter, December 2019 & January 2020
Principal's Message
The month of November is always full of events, and this year was no different. The week before Thanksgiving always proves to be one of the most exciting weeks of the year for our school family and reminds me of how thankful I am to be a part of this school. As we prepared for each event, I was able to see the work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure each event goes smoothly for our students and families.
The Book Fair was a tremendous success once again this year, and I would like to say a big thank you to Ms. Patterson, our Scholastic workers, and all of the parents who volunteered their time to help in the Book Fair throughout the week. We held our annual Towne Acres night at Freddy’s and had an amazing turnout. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who was able to make it and for your patience with the long lines to order both inside and in the drive-thru.
The week continued with our Pastries with Parents morning and afternoon events. This is always one of my favorite days of the school year. We often get so busy with life in general that we are not able to slow down and enjoy some of the simple things in life. Being able to watch so many of you come in to enjoy a pastry with your child(ren) brought a tremendous amount of joy to my heart, and I know your children loved having you there. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped with setup, cleanup, and serving during the morning and afternoon sessions.
The week’s events wrapped up with our Grandparent’s Lunch. Once again, this took a lot of help from so many people. Our cafeteria staff did a wonderful job of making sure we had enough food for our large crowds. Our custodians worked hard to setup extra tables for the event, then had the space ready for Educare by the end of each day. We also had many parent volunteers who helped setup for the event and helped our guests as they arrived.
In addition to all of the events already mentioned, we also had our annual food drive during the week. Our Student Council did a wonderful job of introducing the food drive at our November PTA meeting and also created signs to put around school. Our students filled all five of the bins that were brought to us by Second Harvest Food Bank! Thank you for instilling kindness and generosity in your children! I hope everyone has a wonderful end to 2019 and a great start to 2020!
A Note from the President
Dear TA families,
I can’t believe how quickly November has come and gone. We’ve worked hard but have also done our share of playing hard this past month!
We enjoyed a special morning and afternoon at Pastries with Parents! Thanks so much to Kelley Lewis and Tracie Walker for planning and organizing such an amazing event! And thanks to all of those who volunteered at this event including Dr. Simmons who arranged for students from Milligan College and teachers to help with serving the pastries so that us parents were able to relax and enjoy breakfast with our kiddos.
Later that same week the school hosted the Grandparents’ Lunches. What an amazing turn out we had! I hope all the grandparents and families enjoyed their special lunch together! The PTA had a fun time welcoming all our wonderful grandparents into our school. Thanks so much to all the PTA volunteers who helped coordinate, direct, set up and clean up from the event! I hope everyone had a chance to visit the book fair and find some fun, new stories to read!
Our third grade presented an amazing performance for the school. It was so fun to see the children’s personalities shine through during the performance! Thanks also to all the families who attended the Digital Families Presentation. It was great to be able to talk about keeping our families safe on the internet. For more information, please go to the digital families Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=digital%20families&epa=SEARCH_BOX
During this month, the PTA has collected the amazing and creative entries your children have made for our annual Reflections, citizenship essay, and safety poster competitions. I’m amazed at all the budding artists we have at TA! I can’t wait to announce the award winners! Thanks so much to Tamica Winfrey for organizing and collecting the entries and thanks to both Tamica and Jenn Hollinger for setting up judging at the hospital for the entries!
As much fun as all that was, I was thankful to have a short break in the action to celebrate Thanksgiving with family. I hope you and your family were able to enjoy some time together and to reflect on what the season means to you.
What’s even harder to believe is that we are halfway through the school year! December and January bring with it a flurry of activity but also a chance to rest and enjoy the holiday season as we pause at the halfway mark. We still have so much to look forward to over these next couple of months- -winter parties, sing-alongs, third grade performances, special school presentations, etc. I look forward to all these activities and celebrating the holiday season!
Thank you to Ashley Baker who has been hard at work submitting BoxTops. Thank you, parents, for sending them in, and thank you Ashley for your hard work! Thank you also to Amanda Haywood, Kathryn Comerford, Jessica Sutterlin, Jenn Hollinger, Jenn Belanger, Beth Simpson, Rebecca Jenkins, Tracie Walker, Lucy Martin, Amber Bumgarner, Jessica Bedard, Tamica Winfrey, Sunny Sandos, Tatsiana Yavas, Anisa Gluzberg, Claire Harlock Garber, Candice Wilkings, Ashley Rutledge, Kelley Lewis, Tracie Walker, Ashley Hill, Shannon Thomsen, and Missy Reece for your ongoing efforts and quality work throughout the year, and Melissa Larzo, Jessica Sutterlin, and Jennifer Bradford for your willingness to help with just about anything at any time. Kate Delaune, thank you so much for the faculty and staff t-shirts! You are amazing!
Happy Holidays,
Jennie Fowler
PTA President
Pastries with Parents
Dear Towne Acres Families,
Tracie and I would like to send out a big THANK YOU to all you parents/loved ones who came out and participated in "Pastries with Parents." We hope you enjoyed your breakfast/afternoon snack and spent some quality time with your child/children. We definitely couldn't have made it possible without the help of so many individuals including Jen Bradford, Jen Fowler, Teresa Boggs, Lucy Martin, Daphne Roberts and Vanessa Hawley who volunteered their time to set up, serve and clean up. Another big thank you to the Milligan students who served that morning and allowed us parents time to eat with our child. We also can't forget to thank our corporate sponsors who made this all possible including Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts and Wheeler's Bagels. And lastly, a HUGE thank you to Dr. Simmons for all the extra hours he sacrificed to help pull off this wonderful event. THANK YOU!
Kelley Lewis
General PTA Meeting January 23rd!
Mark your calendars! The next general PTA meeting will be held on Thursday, January 23rd at 6:30PM in the Little Theatre. The 2nd grade will be performing!
Idiom Day!
Towne Criers Reading Program
Way to go Super Readers! We had over 280 students participate, and more than 155,000 minutes were logged for reading!
Don't forget to submit your child's reading minutes for the month of November at https://tinyurl.com/TAReadingLog . As this is due every month, you could set a monthly reminder on your phone. Please submit your child's information by December 5th.
Remember, your child must record at least 400 minutes each month in order to receive the incentive. For your personal use, you may keep track of daily reading each month by downloading or printing the following form: https://tinyurl.com/ TAReadingLogForm.
Remember to take a few good books along as you travel over winter break or snuggle up with a good one while you are home! A reminder will be sent out about Towne Criers when your child returns from winter break, and the deadline for submitting will be extended a few days.
Keep Reading!
Lucy Martin
Reading Chair
December/January Feature: 2nd Grade!
This second grade year has been oceans of fun! The second grade is “sea”-zing each day, adding new skills to our science, math, reading, and writing toolboxes, and we are "shell”-ebrating successes along the way!
Diving deep into science, we explored how wind and water change the surface of the Earth. We traveled to Bristol Caverns to see the effects of water up close. We saw first-hand how the underground river carved out the caverns. We were amazed by the small drops of water that created large stalactites and stalagmites over many years. It was awesome to see how powerful water can be.
We are learning some turtle-y awesome math strategies to become even better problem solvers and mathematicians. We started the year by refining our place value knowledge and learning the different ways to use, write, and look at numbers. Then we jumped into addition and subtraction, learning new skills every day. We have learned how to use a variety of strategies to solve problems, which has helped us become more confident in our answers and explain our thinking.
There are several reading sea-STARS in second grade learning how to surf through fiction and navigate nonfiction. We started the year examining key details in fiction and nonfiction texts. We have learned about text features to help us understand nonfiction, and we studied rhythm and rhyme in poetry. We are also improving our decoding and comprehension skills by learning to use context clues and pictures. We are developing a love of reading that will last a lifetime!
We are producing fin-tastic stories and poems using great texts and our imaginations. Writing is a skill that we will use to communicate for the rest of our lives! We have learned how to write stories about ourselves, using a book as a guide, and using our imaginations. Soon, we will learn how to give information and share our opinions through writing. Writing is helping us become better readers because we are learning to respond to texts in our own words. We have also enjoyed writing just for fun!
Most importantly, we are learning that everyone is whale-come in second grade! We are a community of friends. By helping each other, we can all learn and be successful!
2020 Towne Acres Camp Fair
The Camp Fair is coming up on March 13th! We will start reaching out to camps in January, so if anyone knows of a camp that they would like to see at camp fair, please contact me with the camp’s contact info.
Thank you!!
Shannon Thomsen, VP of Programs
Winners of Freddie's ice cream competition
Yearbook - Send Us Your Photos!
Have any cute photos from school events that you would love to see in the yearbook? Submit your photos to Kathryn Comerford at towneacresyearbook@gmail.com.
Don't forget these!
- Pastries with Parents
- Grandparents' Day
- PTA General Meeting Performances
- Classroom parties/craft days
Yearbook order forms will be sent home soon!
Photos from 3rd Grade performance & Digital Families Event
Cafeteria Volunteers
We are in need of cafeteria volunteers this year! Helping involves passing out straws/napkins and opening food packages. Cafeteria help times are from 10:45-11:45 am. This is a great opportunity for parents and grandparents to get involved at our school. No special training is needed.
All of our open time slots are listed online at Signup. com. You do not need to commit to volunteering on a regular basis – even helping once is appreciated! Click this link to see our SignUp on SignUp.com: https://signup.com/go/PeJCdjM. Review the options listed and choose the spot(s) you like. Sign up! It’s Easy - you will NOT need to register an account or keep a password on SignUp.com. They also do not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me and I can sign you up manually.
Jennifer Tucker
Cafeteria Coordinator
PTA Membership Perks
2019-2020 School Calendar
August 1 Open House, 6-7pm
August 5 First Day of school (11:30am dismissal)
August 15 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)
August 22 Family Engagement Night, 6:30-7:30pm (Little Theater)
August 30 Class T-shirt orders due
September 2 No School- Labor Day
September 6 Midterm Progress Reports Issued
September 9-27 Parent Teacher Conferences (After school hours)
September 10 Fall Individual School Pictures (Grades K-1)
September 11 Fall Individual School Pictures (Grades 2-4)
September 12 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)
September 13 ETSU Spirit Day
September 23-27 Spirit Week
September 27 Fall Carnival, 4:30-8:00pm
October 4 End of 1st Nine Weeks
October 7-11 Fall Break
October 16 Report Cards Issued
October 17 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)
October 24 PTA General Meeting, 6:30pm (Little Theater), 4th Grade
November 1 Fall Party
November 5 No School- Election Day- Parent/Teacher Conferences
November 7 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)
November 14 PTA General Meeting, 6:30pm (Little Theater), 3rd Grade
November 15 Midterm Progress Reports Issued
November 18-22 Book Fair (Library)
November 19 Pastries for Parents
November 21 Grandparent’s Lunch, Grades K-1
November 22 Grandparent’s Lunch, Grades 2-4
November 26 Team Shirt Day
November 27-29 No School- Thanksgiving Break
December 12 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)
December 20 Sing Along and Winter Party, 11:30am Dismissal
December 20 End of 2nd Nine Weeks
January 7 Students return from Winter Break
January 8 Report Cards Issued
January 16 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)
January 20 No School- Martin Luther King Jr Day
January 23 PTA General Meeting, 6:30pm (Little Theater), 2nd Grade
February 7 Midterm Progress Reports Issued
February 13 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)
February 14 Valentine’s Parties
February 17 No School- Snow Day
February 20 PTA General Meeting, 6:30pm (Little Theater), 1st Grade
March 5 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)
March 5 Family Engagement Night- Art Show, 6:30pm
March 13 Camp Fair/ Cultural Arts Presentation
March 13 End of 3rd Nine Weeks
March 16-20 Spring Break- No School
March 25 Report Cards Issued
April 9 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)
April 10 No School- Good Friday
April 13 No School- Snow Day
April 14-May 1 TN Ready Testing Window
April 16 PTA General Meeting- Kindergarten Performance (Little Theater)
April 24 Midterm Progress Reports Issued
April TBD STEM Day
May 1 Pep Rally
May 7 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)
May 8 Field Day
May 13 Reading Awards
May 14 PTA General Meeting- Reflections Awards and New Officers
May12 Variety Show
May 15 Senior Tea
May 21 K-3 Awards
May 22 Last Day of School- ½ Day- 4th Grade Promotion
May 22 Report Cards Issued
2019 Carnival Sponsors & Vendors
Idiom Answers
Photo 1: icing on the cake; 2 peas in a pod; mixed emotions; feeling blue
Photo 2: front row - when life gives you lemons; best thing since sliced bread; back row - cute as a button; spilled the beans; blessing in disguise
Photo 3: head in the clouds; chip on my shoulder; all eyes on me; barking up the wrong tree; negative Nancy
Photo 4: blessing in disguise; heart on my sleeve; teacher's pet; all eyes on me; under the weather